GOVT TO SEND PLANE FOR OFWs IN EGYPT / UNREST COULD TURN MORE VIOLENT
MANILA, FEBRUARY 6, 2011 (STAR) By Aurea Calica – The Philippine government will send a chartered plane to Egypt to repatriate Filipinos who have opted to come home because of the prevailing hostilities there.
Palace Communications Group Secretary Ricky Carandang said the plane would arrive in Egypt in a few days, and the cost of the repatriation would be shouldered by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
In an interview over radio dzRB, Carandang said the political unrest in Egypt is not likely to settle soon because there were no indications that embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak would step down anytime soon.
Some Filipinos, such as those married to Egyptians, do not want to be repatriated. The government instead advised them to stay away from areas where demonstrations are held.
The government has confirmed that no Filipinos were injured in the large rally held last Friday.
The first batch of 26 Filipinos who signed up for voluntary repatriation is expected to arrive in Manila at 4:20 p.m. today on an Emirates Airlines flight that was expected to depart from Cairo's International Airport at 6:55 p.m. Cairo time.
The 26 repatriates -14 women, 10 minors and two men -are Filipino scholars from the Al Azhar University and their families, three nurses from Dar Al Faoud Hospital, and domestic workers.
The embassy was assisted by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) office in Cairo in arranging the flight.
The embassy is preparing the repatriation of a second batch of 20 Filipinos through a commercial flight either tomorrow or Tuesday.
Twenty-seven Filipinos were scheduled to leave yesterday but four of them, a family, changed their minds and decided to stay. Another three joined the remaining repatriates.
The embassy said Filipino migrants who are part of a community feel safe in their neighborhoods and continue to hope that the political impasse will be resolved soon.
Because of this, the embassy has not imposed a mandatory evacuation of Filipinos living in communities. Those who feel that their safety is at risk may contact the embassy for voluntary repatriation.
The DFA has also directed Philippine embassies in countries near Egypt to make arrangements with their host governments to allow Filipinos to safely pass through their territories if evacuation by land becomes necessary.
Charge d'Affaires Eduardo Pablo Maglaya said there is now a steady supply of food and water in Cairo. Banks have also reopened, enabling withdrawal from automated teller machines.
The DFA has issued a travel advisory to Egypt enjoining Filipinos to postpone non-essential and non-urgent travel to the beleaguered nation until the security situation has stabilized.
Vice President Jejomar Binay, who is on official visit to Washington, urged the United Nations to issue a strong statement calling for a peaceful resolution to the ongoing political conflict in Egypt. - With Pia Lee Brago, Jose Rodel Clapano
ElBaradei warns that Egypt protests could turn more violent Sat Feb 5, 2011 7:51pmBy Tom Perry and Sherine El Madany
CAIRO (Reuters) - Unrest in Egypt could turn increasingly vicious, leading opposition activist Mohamed ElBaradei warned on Saturday, as President Hosni Mubarak clung to power after 12 days of demonstrations.
Mubarak has reshuffled his government, and the leadership of his party resigned on Saturday, but the 82-year-old president insists he will stay in office until September polls.
Fearing instability in the most populous Arab nation where Islamists are the most organized opposition, the United States, Egypt's key ally and aid donor, is emphasizing gradual change and the need for talks between the government and opposition groups to forge agreement on an orderly handover of power.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton threw her weight behind talks between Mubarak's handpicked vice president, Omar Suleiman, and opposition groups, saying the government's fragile dialogue with the opposition must be given time to unfold.
"There are forces at work in any society, and particularly one that is facing these kinds of challenges, that will try to derail or overtake the process to pursue their own specific agenda," Clinton told a security conference in Munich.
She did not name the forces, but Washington has expressed concern about any involvement of militant Islamist elements.
"Which is why I think it's important to support the transition process announced by the Egyptian government, actually headed by now Vice President Omar Suleiman."
ElBaradei said it would be a "major setback" if the United States were to support either Mubarak or Suleiman to lead a transitional government to oversee change.
TRANSITION OR BLOODSHED?
Demonstrations in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Saturday were smaller than Friday's huge protest by hundreds of thousands billed as the "Day of Departure" for Mubarak, but there were still queues at an army checkpoint to get into the square.
A key test will be whether the momentum of protest can be maintained when the working week begins again on Sunday.
The Egyptian government appears to trying to emphasize the threat to stability and the economy posed by the protests, and tough it out, hoping the demonstrations will fade away.
ElBaradei said he did not think the protests were running out of steam and worried the situation could get even bloodier.
"There is of course a little fatigue everywhere," he told Reuters, adding that there was a "hard core" of demonstrators who would not give up as long as Mubarak held onto power.
"It might not be every day but what I hear is that they might stage demonstrations every other day," ElBaradei said. "The difference is that it would become more angry and more vicious. And I do not want to see it turning from a beautiful, peaceful revolution into a bloody revolution."
President Barack Obama has urged Mubarak to "make the right decision" and U.S. officials have over the past week indicated they believe his days in power may be numbered.
But Clinton, seeking to place renewed emphasis on the process of political transition, underscored the U.S. view that it will take both time and patience to lay the groundwork for truly democratic new elections to take place.
"Our view is the early discussions are the right thing for the government to have initiated and now the opposition should get involved in them to test the proposition that the government is serious," said one senior U.S. official.
Suleiman is due to meet opposition groups at 11:00 a.m. (4 a.m. EST) on Sunday in talks joined for the first time by the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's most influential and organized opposition group. They are to discuss the process of Mubarak leaving office and the right to protest freely and safely.
A proposal being promoted by a group of Egyptians calling itself the "The Council of Wise Men" involves Suleiman assuming presidential powers for an interim period pending elections.
But some opposition figures argue that would mean the next presidential election would be held under the same unfair conditions as in previous years. They want to first have a new parliament to change the constitution to pave the way for a presidential vote that is democratic.
ECONOMIC SUFFERING
With some protesters insisting they want not just Mubarak but also his allies out straight away, moves to keep the veteran president in office are unlikely to go down well.
An Egyptian army commander was shouted down when he tried to persuade thousands of demonstrators at Tahrir Square to stop a protest that has stalled economic life in the capital.
"You all have the right to express yourselves but please save what is left of Egypt. Look around you," Hassan al-Roweny said through a loud speaker and standing on a podium.
The crowd responded with shouts that Mubarak should resign. Roweny then left, saying: "I will not speak amid such chants."
Egypt's economy is already suffering. Growth, which was running at 6 percent, will be hit, said Central Bank Governor Farouk el-Okdah. There will also be movement in the Egyptian pound, he said, but the bank has enough reserves to cope.
Exports fell six percent in January because of the mass protests and curfew, Trade Minister Samiha Fawzi Ibrahim said. A Credit Agricole report said the crisis was costing Egypt about $310 million a day.
Many shops have been closed during 12 days of protests and banks have been shut, making it hard for Egyptians to stock up on basic goods. Some prices have been pushed up.
Saboteurs blew up a gas pipeline in northern Egypt overnight, disrupting flows to Israel and also to Jordan, where protesters angered by economic hardship have been demanding a more democratic political system.
Islamist websites had called for attacks on the pipeline.
The United Nations estimates 300 people have died in the unrest and the health minister has said around 5,000 people have been wounded since January 25.
(Reporting by Edmund Blair, Samia Nakhoul, Patrick Werr, Dina Zayed, Marwa Awad, Shaimaa Fayed, Alexander Dziadosz, Yasmine Saleh, Sherine El Madany, Yannis Behrakis, Jonathan Wright, Andrew Hammond, Tom Perry and Alison Williams in Cairo, writing by Jonathan Hemming, editing by Myra MacDonald)
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